Thursday, 30 December 2010

Puzzling Words . . . *

Good Morning Everyone . . . nice to see you here again . . .

Well, "the snow has gone and in its wake, rain 'pon rain our thirst to slake" as the poet said - huge prizes for guessing which poet; you can even google it! - and yet another gob of gray squats on rooftops and makes the business of life just that little bit harder to deal with, don't you think?

Plans for today - when I finally extract myself from the library - include a very exciting date with twenty-year old Rosie who will be accompanying me as I visit the Hall of the Mounting Thrill to do the OD's shopping; she still doesn't feel up to venturing out following her foolish fall in the now departed snow and so I am there in her stead . . .after I have safely seen young Rosie home I am to Nero to meet up with Sister Cate for the long-awaited Muffin and Green Tea extravaganza which is set to become something of a rarity soon as one of my main nude ear revolutions is a drastic reduction in the amount of sweetness passing my lips . . . one does wonder exactly what will be left to sacrifice soon as practically all of the pleasures of the flesh are no-no's now . . . ah me! The life of the ascetic, eh! It is very reminiscent of the old story of how giving up such practices as drinking, smoking, eating sweets etc doesn't actually make you live longer, it just seems that way!

Anyhow, that is the plan and I will, full of hope, try and stick to it . . . I was going to write "hopefully" then but I have a sneaking suspicion that it is in some way incorrect usage; pardon me for one moment whilst I check that one out . . . Ah! look at this from someone called Lizz Shepherd:

"Using the word hopefully as a substitute for the phrase “I hope” or “it is hoped” is the most common, but incorrect, usage . . . using the word correctly as an adverb means to substitute it instead for the phrase “full of hope” or "in a hopeful manner." When unsure whether the word is being used correctly, simply use one of those phrases instead and see whether the sentence still makes sense" **

So, if I have understood that correctly I was employing the proper usage; in fact I even used the phrase "full of hope" before reading the article - what a clever chap I am! It is evidently something called a sentence adverb (which sounds like a suspiciously colonial term) rather than a standard adverb . . . you see? All those years avoiding Grammar School finally came to be of some use . . . another one to cause me twinges is the use of less or fewer; I can never remember which is used when - although a brief scan across the shelves reveals that

"Use fewer with objects that can be counted one-by-one. Use less with qualities or quantities that cannot be individually counted."

Hmmm . . . well, glad that one's sorted out then . . .

And so it's nearly time for me to beautify and get on with the business of the day; I had a lovely time in amid the rural backwaters of Deer Crossing in Cheshire yesterday, only slightly marred by the reluctance of trains to run on time which delayed my return by a half hour or so, but all in all a very pleasant day . . . I am a country boy at heart and the stillness and solitude and the company of "good country folk" really strum my heartstrings into a crescendo . . .

I hope that, despite the grayness here, your day is filled with love and light, wherever you may be!

About Me

Myrtle House, one of two Victorian town houses slumbering in a sleepy backwater and sheltering in the shadow of The Parish Church of All Saints, is the home and E-publishing base of Writer, Blogger, Sophrosyne, Paranomasiac and Opsimath Ian McLoughlin. For contact details please see my full profile ॐ